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How You Can Grow Your Social Security Benefits Beyond Retirement Age

For more and more Americans, reaching retirement age no longer means the end of an active working life. Many people are choosing to work past the age of 65, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If you’re willing and able, maintaining gainful employment later in life could go a long way toward ensuring a secure future for you and your family. Besides providing you with additional income to pay your bills, extending your employment or working for yourself could boost your lifetime Social Security benefits.

Here’s how:

Whether you’re still working or not, waiting to claim your Social Security retirement benefits could grow them significantly. Through delayed retirement credits, your monthly benefit amount increases for each year you wait between your full retirement age and 70. Full retirement age is between 65 and 67, depending on when you were born. To learn more about delayed retirement credits, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/planners/retire/delayret.html.

You get credits on your earnings record for each year of additional work income. Once you start receiving retirement benefits, we’ll automatically review your earnings record each year to determine if you’re entitled to an adjustment. When we calculate your retirement benefit amount, we use your best 35 years of earnings. We’ll increase your benefit amount if your new year of earnings is higher than one of the years we used to calculate your initial benefit amount. To see how we calculate your benefits, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf.

An increased benefit amount for yourself could mean more support for your family, too, through Social Security spousal benefits, child benefits, and survivor benefits.

We also encourage you to set up your own online mySocial Security account so you can verify your lifetime earnings record, check the status of an application for benefits, and manage them after you’re receiving them. You can create your personal mySocial Security account today at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.

Social Security is committed to helping you prepare for a secure today and tomorrow for you, your family, and future family. You can access all of our retirement resources at www.socialsecurity.gov/planners/retire.

Hi James, thank you for your question. You cannot get more credits or increase your benefit amount by voluntarily contributing money to Social Security. You can earn credits only by working in a job or your own business that is covered under Social Security. We hope this is helpful.

Hi Marcia, thanks for using our blog. If you apply for Social Security benefits and you change your mind about when they should start, you may be able to withdraw your Social Security claim and re-apply at a future date. However, if you change your mind 12 months or more after you became entitled to retirement benefits, you cannot withdraw your application. Also, keep in mind that you must repay all the benefits that you and your family received. For more information, go to our web page If You Change Your Mind. We hope this is helpful.

Hi James, thank you for your question. She may be able to get spouse’s benefits but, under existing law, if she is eligible for benefits both as a retired worker and as a spouse, she must apply for both benefits and will receive the higher of the two benefits. This requirement is called “deemed filing” because when you apply for one benefit you are “deemed” to have also applied for the other.

Hi James. If your wife turned 62 before January 2, 2016, deemed filing rules will not apply if she files at FRA or later. This means that she can file for either a spouse’s benefit or her retirement benefit without being required or “deemed” to file for the other. She can restrict her application to apply only for spouse’s benefits and delay filing for her own retirement in order to earn delayed retirement credits. However, if she turns age 62 on or after January 2, 2016, she is required or “deemed” to file for both her own retirement and for any benefits she may be due as a spouse, no matter what age she is when she files. Hope this helps!

My husband received disability benefits at an earlier age. He recently passed away at the age of75. . I draw social security benefits from my own work credits. He received approximately $200 more than I do. Am I entitled to the higher amount now and if so how do I apply. I can’t figure it out on line and wait time on the phone is over an hour. The local office is closed.

Hi Maria, thank you for using our blog. You may be able to get spouse’s benefits but, under existing law, if you are eligible for benefits both as a retired worker and as a spouse, you must apply for both benefits and you’ll receive the higher of the two benefits. This requirement is called “deemed filing” because when you apply for one benefit you are “deemed” to have also applied for the other.

If you are unable or do not want to apply for benefits online, you can schedule an appointment by:
•Calling us at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778); or
•Contacting your local Social Security office. Please look for the general inquiry telephone number at the Social Security Office Locator. The number may appear under Show Additional Office Information. Please be aware that our call wait times are longer than normal. We hope this information helps.

Want to make sure that I understand. Planning to retire at 62, cancer diag. Not disability eligible. No problem. My husband has a higher ss retirement income. So I can get mine draw up to an identified max from his without effecting his benefits.

On an aside could I still work part-time 10/15 tele therapy if I became of a mind which currently am not.

Hi Cecropia, thanks for using our blog. We will always pay your own retirement benefit first. If benefits as a spouse are higher than your own retirement benefits, you will get a combination of benefits equaling the higher spouse benefit. However, keep in mind that a spouse’s benefit cannot exceed one-half of your own full retirement amount (not your reduced benefit amount). So, you are only going to receive additional spouse’s benefits if your own full retirement benefit (not a reduced benefit) is less than half of your spouse’s full retirement benefit (not a reduced benefit). For more details, check out our Benefits For Your Spouse web page.

I am 69 . Retired but still working a different job which deducts for social security . My social security check has changed very little . Q. My current income from working is about 46K . Not sure why my check has not increased more ?